A monument to the victims of political repressions opened in Sviyazhsk

A monument to the victims of political repressions and exhibition dedicated to Sviyazhsk prisoners of the XXth century opened on island-town Sviyazhsk on October 30. The Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov, State Counselor of RT, Chairman of board of guardians of the Republican Fund for RT Historical and Cultural Monuments Mintimer Shaimiev took part in the ceremony.

“It is a very important day. During 20 years we have brought in mind the victims of political repressions. All of us should remember what happened in our country. Island-town Sviyazhsk have experienced many hard times including this misfortune. During war years 3 000 people died”, RT President marked.

“These troubles concerned relatives of the repressed as well. It is important for us to keep the memory of those people who were repressed unfairly. Some families even did not know about location of their relatives, they were considered to be missing. The younger generation should know about such period in their lives and it must not happen again. We will remember events of the past and today bewail it with you”, Rustam Minnikhanov continued.

“The land itself is the evidence of such hard times which remind us that totalitarianism is inadmissible in any form. During 1937-1938 1,5 mln people were arrested, 628 thousand people were shot. Many of them were innocent”, Mintimer Shaimiev added. “Many intellectuals were killed here. For example, a distinguished Tatar poet Khasan Tufan spent 10 years here in prison and was exiled afterwards to Siberia for 7 years. Only after 17 years he could come back home. It is difficult to read poems devoted to his wife who waited for him all those years”, Mintimer Shaimiev told.

The monument was created by Makhmut Gasimov. It is a 2-metre stela made of white marble with embed prison bar and a hand letting the dove go.

The place to mount a monument was not a coincidence. Upon laying communications in Sviyazhsk a mass grave related to the 40s of XX century was found. The decision was made to leave bodies lie and make a memorial zone with a monument there.

The exhibition “Sviyazhsk: political repressions and victims of Gulag” was opened later on with participation of Rustam Minnikhanov and Mintimer Shaimiev.